The Courtroom FEA Newsletter discusses the use of Finite Element Analysis in the courtroom, and serves thousands of product liability and personal injury attorneys in 26 countries.

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Courtroom FEA: Why did it fail?



Do you have a case where a loss, injury or death was caused by something bending or breaking? Finite element analysis (FEA) can help explain why the product failed, which can often identify the responsible party.

Was the product design deficient? Was the subject part defectively manufactured? Or was the product abused by the end user? Being able to answer these questions with engineering certainty may be the difference between winning and losing your case.

The FEA results can be presented as color images and animations. As discussed in previous issues of Courtroom FEA, this makes the analysis conclusions more understandable for the jury. An accurate FEA can also be powerful leverage in reaching an advantageous settlement with your opposition.

An experienced analyst can prepare the finite element model such that it accurately predicts the part's behavior, and can ensure that the solution algorithms do not interject significant errors. Results from the less-experienced are often suspect, and identifying them as so can be a tremendous advantage in the courtroom.

FEA has internal checks that a good analyst needs to apply to verify the results. Hand calculations provide a rough estimate of the results, and the hand calculations and FEA had better match within their accuracies. If not, something is wrong with one or both of them, and the analyst had better correct that. Once they do match, hand calculations are an external check of the detailed FEA results.

Given the advantages of a carefully applied analysis, it is worth your time to consider how an experienced FEA expert can help you win your client's case.